BCTR Talks at Twelve: Ann Marie White

Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 12:00pm
to 1:00pm

"Preparing to Work with Systems and Stakeholders to Prevent Violence and Suicide"

Fundamental factors at individual, relational, community and societal levels contribute to violence and suicide. Identifying, mitigating or preventing such ‘common risks’ is a key nexus for public health and prevention approaches. However, this extant literature is less instructive of ‘where to begin’ prevention initiatives – and says little about who or how communities experiencing these factors are to develop and lead in these areas.
Fostering academic-community partnerships that employ community-based participatory research as well as systems science methods is a critical direction of prevention research. Mobilization of stakeholder systems can generate far reaching, network-based intervention models within community members’ means to implement.

Methods of devising, testing and sustaining population-level, community-based and -led approaches (beyond formal health care and led by those affected), that employ some social network intervention (e.g., spread of information through a group), are underdeveloped. New directions in these methods for violence prevention are the focus of this talk.

Dr. Ann Marie White is Director of the Office of Mental Health Promotion (OMHP) and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She leads department-level change initiatives to deepen Psychiatry’s community engagement via service, education and research. OMHP oversees community, consumer and diversity affairs for Psychiatry faculty and staff.